Musalia Mudavadi

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Musalia Mudavadi
Musalia Mudavadi.JPG
Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya
In office
13 April 2008 – 9 April 2013
Serving with Uhuru Kenyatta
PresidentMwai Kibaki
Prime MinisterRaila Odinga
7th Vice-President of Kenya
In office
4 November 2002 – 3 January 2003
PresidentDaniel arap Moi
Preceded byGeorge Saitoti
Succeeded byMichael Wamalwa
Minister of Transport and Communication
In office
2000–2002
PresidentDaniel arap Moi
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJohn Michuki
Minister for Information, Transport and Communication
In office
1999–2000
PresidentDaniel arap Moi
Preceded byWilliam Ole Ntimama
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Minister of Finance
In office
1993–1997
PresidentDaniel arap Moi
Preceded byGeorge Saitoti
Succeeded bySimeon Nyachae
Minister for Supplies and Marketing
In office
May 1989 – 1993
PresidentDaniel arap Moi
Preceded byMulu Mutisya
Personal details
Born (1960-09-21) 21 September 1960 (age 60)
Sabatia, Kenya
NationalityKenyan
Political partyAmani National Congress
Spouse(s)Tessie Musalia
RelationsMoses Mudavadi (father)
Children
3
Alma materUniversity of Nairobi
Signature
Websitewww.musaliamudavadi.com

Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi (born 21 September 1960, Sabatia, Vihiga District) is a Kenyan politician, who served as the seventh Vice President of Kenya in 2002 and as Deputy Prime Minister from 2008- 2012 May when he resigned officially to join the presidential race. He is the current Party Leader of Amani National Congress after decamping from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by the prime minister Raila Odinga in 2012 where before his resignation he served as the deputy party leader. He was third in the 2013 Kenyan general election. Mudavadi is among the top contenders for the 2022 Kenya presidential election[1]

Early life and education[]

Born and raised in a quaker family, Mudavadi is an ethnic Maragoli from the populous Luhya community. After his late father, he is the only other Kenyan politician who does not swear oaths of office because his faith forbids it. His staunch quaker upbringing may be the reason that he almost comes across as a naive and laidback player in Kenya's vibrant political scene: Quakers are notorious for their honesty and respected worldwide for their pacificism, strict adherence to speaking the truth at all times (swearing an oath is admitting the opposite), aversion to war and violence, plain dressing and use of plain language.

As a youngster, he played rugby union for Mean Machine RFC.[2] Mudavadi schooled at Nairobi school he later Went to the university of Nairobi

Political career[]

Early parliamentary career[]

He first became an MP in 1989, when he was elected unopposed to take the Sabatia Constituency seat vacated by his deceased father Moses Mudavadi.He went on to win the 1992 & 1997 Sabatia constituency parliamentary seat [3]

2002 Election[]

In late 2002, Mudavadi was the last and shortest serving Vice-President of Kenya under President Daniel arap Moi. Mudavadi was appointed in an unsuccessful attempt to bring the then Western Province votes into the camp of KANU, which had been the party of government since independence.[4][5][6]

Mudavadi ran for Vice-President as Uhuru Kenyatta's running mate in the 2002 election. Despite the support of the outgoing President Moi, the KANU political machine and the provincial administration, the Kenyatta/Mudavadi ticket was roundly beaten and Mudavadi lost his Sabatia parliamentary seat.

2005 Referendum[]

In 2005, Mudavadi made a political comeback by aligning himself with the 'No' side in that year's Referendum on the proposed new Constitution. This aligned him clearly with Raila Odinga's LDP and it was speculated that he could become the leading Luhya politician.[7][8]

2007 Election[]

After the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) split from the ODM-K, Mudavadi sought the nomination of the ODM as its candidate for the December 2007 presidential election. On 1 September 2007, the ODM elected Odinga as its presidential candidate; Mudavadi took second place with 391 votes, far short of Odinga's 2,656 votes.[9] Along with the other defeated candidates, Mudavadi expressed his support for Odinga afterward, and he was named Odinga's running mate for the election.[10]

Although the election was officially won by Kibaki, ODM disputed the official results and claimed victory for Odinga. A violent crisis developed, which eventually led to the signing of a power-sharing agreement between Kibaki and Odinga. As part of the grand coalition Cabinet, Mudavadi was named as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Government on 13 April 2008. He was the Deputy Prime Minister representing the ODM, while Kenyatta was the Deputy Prime Minister representing Kibaki's Party of National Unity.[11][12][13] Mudavadi and the rest of the Cabinet were sworn in on 17 April.[14][15]

Presidential Elections[]

2012/13 General Election[]

In 2012 Musalia Mudavadi sought for the Nomination of ODM to be its presidential candidate for the 2013 general elections. He later on decamped from the party sighting lack of political freedom in the party. He said that the ODM party Leader Raila Odinga had placed illegal/unconstitutional political mechanisms that made it impossible for any other president aspirant to seek a successful free and fair presidential nomination. He later on joined United Democratic Party a party from the central region and became its flag-bearer for the presidential election. He came a close third in the run for top leadership in the country.

Mudavadi left ODM after he was technically locked out of the presidential race through a party constitution clause that gave the party leader a direct nomination to be a presidential candidate. Musalia however refused to resign as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya citing that the office of the Deputy Prime minister is a political office therefore he would not resign. He then joined the Uhuru Kenyatta and Williams Ruto's Jubilee coalition briefly bringing together UDF, URP and TNA parties. However, Mudavadi left the coalition after a breach of contract which had stated that Uhuru Kenyatta would step down in his favour as the presidential flagbearer for the UDF/TNA/URP coalition. Uhuru surprised the nation by admitting that he signed the agreement but strongly defended his decision claiming he was coerced by "dark forces". This breach of agreement resulted from fierce objection by Uhuru's supporters who insisted that he must be the coalition's presidential aspirant and that any nominations had to be done through voting by party delegates. Mudavadi objected saying the front-runner should be agreed on by consensus because of the agreement with Uhuru and the fact that the delegates themselves had not been selected through grassroots elections.

Mudavadi is the first Deputy prime minister while Uhuru Kenyatta is the 2nd Deputy Prime minister. Both Deputy prime ministers do not have ministerial portfolios. Uhuru resigned in March and musalia mudavadi resigned as Local government minister in early May 2012.

2017 General Election[]

In 2015, Musalia Mudavadi formed his own party that would take him to the presidential race come 2017. Amani National Congress a party that has already declared him as its presidential candidate has already received a lot of insights from the political field.Mudavadi formed the National super alliance (NASA) Currently Musalia Mudavadi is a core principal of opposition National Super Alliance (NASA). He was the only principal of the National Super Alliance not to stand for an elective seat in 2017 general election but was the NASA campaigner

2022 General Election[]

After the 2017 general elections the NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga decided to swear himself.Musalia refused to attend the mock swearing in terming it unconstitutional.On 9th March 2018 the NASA presidential candidate had a handshake with president Uhuru Kenyatta.Since 2018 Mudavadi has been the opposition figure in Kenyans politics and more vocal talking about Kenyan's economy and huge public debt.

On March 2021 Mudavadi with the other two NASA principals Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka,Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetangula joined with Kanu chairman Gideon Moi forming the ONE KENYA ALLIANCE-OKA after winning the three consecutive by elections with their respective parties .

In 2021 Mudavadi has been more active traversing the country to popularise his presidential bid.

Scandals and Integrity[]

Involvement in graves plot scandal[]

Main article: City Council Cemetery Land Scandal

In March 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi come under investigation by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) over the Sh283 million cemetery land fraud. KACC officials said that they wanted to establish whether the minister was party to the fraud in which the City Council of Nairobi bought land valued at Sh24 million for nearly Sh300 million. Mr Mudavadi protested his innocence and said KACC was being unfair by accusing him without giving him a chance to be heard.[16] Investigations are currently ongoing into the matter. In June 2020, according to court records as reported by the Daily Nation, Mudavadi did not benefit from cemetery land deal thus was not culpable in the scandal.[17] It later emerged that Mudavadi did not receive any funds from the scandal neither was he involved in any way in the conspiracy that led to the cemetery land scandal.[17][18]

LSK blacklist[]

In January 2012 the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) identified Mudavadi as one of the public officials have been mentioned adversely in various reports on issues ranging from corruption to economic crimes. The LSK advised voters not to vote those mentioned in the report as they had previously compromised.[19] According to LSK at the time Mudavadi was blacklisted in veiled blanket allegations against the Kibaki administration officials among other politicians such as former president Mwai Kibaki, William Ruto, Charity Ngilu with no specific allegations levelled against any of them thus no specific way Mudavadi was culpable as an individual to warrant the blacklist individually.[19]

Personal life[]

Mudavadi is married to Tessie Mudavadi and they have three children; Maryanne, Moses and Michael. Mudavadi is an Ardent fan of English football team Manchester United and Kenyan premier league side AFC leopards .He once served as a patron of AFC leopards [20]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Twaweza Communications; Heinrich Böll Stiftung (29 December 2015). Njogu, Kimani; Wekesa, Peter Wafula (eds.). Kenya's 2013 General Election: Stakes, Practices and Outcome. Twaweza Communications. doi:10.2307/j.ctvh8r0bc. ISBN 978-9966-028-72-3.
  2. ^ .Safaricom Archived 7 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Daily Nation, 3 September 2002: Why Moi is Uncomfortable With Musalia's Candidature
  4. ^ https://www.the-star.co.ke/authors/scooper. "'From Saitoti to Mudavadi': Vice Presidents who served under Moi". The Star. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  5. ^ Nesoba, Ruth (25 February 2013). "Profile: Musalia Mudavadi". BBC News. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  6. ^ "Two-month term for new vice-president". The New Humanitarian. 5 November 2002. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Mudavadi: Defer referendum talk". Daily Nation. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  8. ^ Digital, Standard. "Mudavadi, the leading light of Western politics". The Standard. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  9. ^ "Kenya: It's Raila for President", East African Standard (allAfrica.com), 1 September 2007.
  10. ^ Maina Muiruri, "ODM ‘pentagon’ promises to keep the team intact" Archived 3 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Standard (Kenya), 2 September 2007.
  11. ^ "Kenya unveils 40-seat cabinet", Al Jazeera, 13 April 2008.
  12. ^ "Kenya unveils coalition cabinet", BBC News, 13 April 2008.
  13. ^ Anthony Kariuki, "Kibaki names Raila PM in new Cabinet"[permanent dead link], nationmedia.com, 13 April 2008.
  14. ^ Eric Ombok, "Kenya's Raila Odinga Sworn in as Prime Minister, Ending Crisis", Bloomberg.com, 17 April 2008.
  15. ^ "Odinga sworn in as Kenya PM", Al Jazeera, 17 April 2008.
  16. ^ "Mudavadi probed in graves plot scandal". Daily Nation. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b "Mudavadi did not benefit from cemetery land deal, court told". Nation.
  18. ^ Munguti, Richard (27 April 2016). "Mudavadi did not pocket millions in Nairobi cemetery saga – witness". Nairobi News.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b "LSK Blacklists Leaders Over Integrity". Citizen Media. 16 January 2013. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  20. ^ "A closer look: Mudavadi on family and life". The Standard (Kenya). 22 November 2020. |first1= missing |last1= (help)

External links[]

Political offices
Preceded by
George Saitoti 		Vice-President of Kenya
2002-2003 		Succeeded by
Michael Wamalwa Kijana
Retrieved from ""